Willowbrook savors sweet triumph against Addison Trail

For Katelyn McCann and the Willowbrook girls basketball team, the West Suburban Gold rivalry with Addison Trail digs deeper than just league supremacy.

"A lot of them we used to play back in eighth grade when we were in middle school," the junior guard said. "So we've been playing against each other for like four years now. We know each other and we know how each other play."

So claiming a 61-42 win over the Blazers is a bit sweeter for McCann and the Warriors.

"This is one of the most fun games we have all season, our rivals," McCann said. "It's just one of those games we want to win. We come out and play hard and that's what we want to do. Beat them."

Willowbrook (2-7, 1-3) did that by forcing Addison Trail into mistake after mistake.

The Blazers committed 35 turnovers, including 11 in the first quarter.

"We know them very well," Willowbrook coach Terry Harrell said. "What we did is look at some of the tendencies they have and we played towards those tendencies."

But for all the mistakes Addison Trail (3-5, 0-4) committed, the Blazers never were out of striking distance. The Blazers went into the locker room at halftime with some hope, only trailing 23-19, even after committing 19 first half turnovers.

"I definitely had confidence," Blazers senior Nicci Scorza said.

But Willowbrook amped up the intensity on offense coming out of halftime.

After a Serena Gilliam layup made it 23-21 just 13 seconds into the half, the Warriors rattled off a 14-2 run. In that run Willowbrook limited Addison Trail to just 1 field goal, forced 5 turnovers and limited the Blazers to 1-of-7 shooting.

"It was a huge third quarter for us," Willowbrook senior point guard Jayla Smith said.

Coupled with the Warriors strong defense, Smith orchestrated a potent offensive attack, as the Warriors doubled their scoring output in one quarter. Smith scored just 6 points but dished out 8 assists, had 8 rebounds and snatched 6 steals.

"My main focus was pushing the ball and looking for my teammates," Smith said.

McCann had a hot hand in the third quarter, too. McCann had 14 of her game-high 22 points in the quarter.

"We came out in the third quarter and just went to town and everybody played really well," McCann said. "It felt really good to have that type of third quarter.

For Addison Trail, it feels like the same story, just a different opponent.

"We have a lot of unforced turnovers," Addison Trail coach Rob Schader said. "That's really what's hurting us thus far in the season. We're averaging over 30 turnovers a game."

And the Blazers will look for answers to right their mistakes.

"It's definitely frustrating, being a senior and a captain," Scorza said. "We have to make a change for the rest of the season if we want to see different outcomes."